Hollywood movies (not to mention life itself) are full of examples of older male actors having relationships with attractive younger women.

Now, some independent female filmmakers (as in life itself) are turning that formula around. They’re doing so in provocative — even transgressive — ways, while emphasizing empathy for individuals whose behavior would be judged harshly by many, and certainly so by mainstream media.

Three movies in Los Angeles theaters this week revolve around adult women having affairs with men under 21.

“The Lifeguard” stars Kristen Bell as Leigh, a 29-year-old journalist who retreats to her hometown — and the job she had in high school — after professional and romantic setbacks in the big city. She eventually grows close to a kid who hangs out at her pool, 16-year-old Little Jason (played by 20-year-old David Lambert), and eagerly accepts his move when he makes it.

In “A Teacher,” Austin, Texas instructor Diana Watts (Lindsay Burdge) has a secret, increasingly intense affair with Eric Tull (Will Brittain), a charismatic, confident senior in one of her classes.

Set in a gorgeous Australian seaside town that apparently has no teenage girls, “Adore” stars Naomi Watts and Robin Wright as lifelong best friends whose respective sons (Xavier Samuel and James Frenchville) grew into godlike surfers. Each boy has little trouble seducing the other’s mom, and both affairs continue for years.

These films are a long way in tone and attitude from the few English language features, such as “The Graduate” and “Notes on a Scandal” (both made by men), that have previously addressed the subject.

“Women are making films about older women and younger men, I think, because they want to explore what is exciting to them and something that is dynamic,” says “Lifeguard” writer-director Liz W. Garcia. “Certainly, this is a reversal on an old trope, so I think it’s enticing to kind of slap that old cliché in the face.

“But I don’t think that is the primary motivation,” adds Garcia, a television writer-producer who made her feature debut with “Lifeguard.” “I don’t think filmmakers come from an intellectual place of wanting to do something new. Your muse goes there because it’s something natural and intriguing. I think it’s natural for women to be drawn to different types of relationships that don’t at all have to be very civilized or about getting married.”

“A Teacher” is also Hannah Fidell’s first feature writing-directing effort. She admits that she chose the subject matter to attract actors and film festival attention, but beyond that tried to make the film, which is presented from the lovestruck but pragmatically paranoid Diana’s point-of-view, as personal and humanistic as she could.

“Of course, the concept is already so ingrained in the forbidden and, yet, it’s still a titillating idea,” Fidell says. “I felt like, you hear about this all the time. But I didn’t want to do a film about the Mary Kay Letourneaus or the Debra Lafaves, the kind of more headline-grabbing stories. Not all of these women are like that. There’s just something to explore in the situation and the internal confusion that one might feel if they were in such a situation.”

French director Anne Fontaine has explored the affect of attractive young people on complacent older folks in such films as “Dry Cleaning” and “The Girl from Monaco.” Her first English-language production “Adore” was inspired by a novella, “The Grandmothers,” written by British Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing when she was in her 80s. The director claims it is quite different from what she refers to as a typical cougar tale, and that’s why she wanted to make the movie.

“I had never heard a love story like that,” says Fontaine, noting that French works have long tackled the olderwoman/younger man subject, from Colette’s “Cheri” (filmed in English — by Stephen Frears — in 2009) to Louis Malle’s “Murmur of the Heart” and, it sometimes seems, every fifth or so Isabelle Huppert movie.

“And it was a true story that happened in Australia, in a little community,” Fontaine adds. “I was touched by this amazing relationship, first between these two women, that was so strong and they then extended their love to their sons. I thought it was really interesting and exciting, this mixture of something that you can’t explain.”

Watts concurs.

“I’m interested in human beings that are flawed, and how we’re able to understand them,” the Australian actress says. “In this case, it’s two women who get involved in a very unusual situation, but as an audience you go from judging them to forgiving them.”

The three movies, however, aren’t about letting people off the hook. Though the boys in “Lifeguard” and “Teacher” don’t appear the least bit damaged by the end, their lovers are, at the very least, unhappily aware of their ethical lapses and potential legal downfalls. “Adore’s” affairs begin when the boys are 20, but even though no official taboos are broken, emotional consequences prove deep and long-lasting.

Sometimes, even the filmmakers judged their characters. But that didn’t stop them from understanding them.

“I personally feel what Diana is doing is morally wrong,” Fidell says. “You do not cross that line. But this wasn’t a statement on whether societal repercussions and ostracizing of people who do this is right or wrong. It’s really supposed to be one specific instance, one relationship, just a slice of life.”

“‘The Lifeguard’ is a story about a girl who’s really confused as to when she’s supposed to end her adolescence and begin her adulthood, and making a series of inappropriate decisions along the way,” Bell observes. “But sometimes, you find a lot of secret beauty in dangerous and inappropriate behavior.”

Fontaine makes no apologies for her characters. Informed of the new American films on the subject, she enthusiastically says “That’s good news!”

Bell was pretty stoked to think that her film was part of a trend, too.

“I haven’t seen the other ones, but I’ve heard that this plotline has popped up recently,” the “Veronica Mars” actress says. “The only thing I can say is that there are more opportunities now for female writers and directors than there were five years ago. Women are starting to write for themselves, about their experiences, about things that they want to see. And good writing comes from exploring your darkest parts, I think. Good writing is not on the surface, it’s not exploring your surface feelings. And the reality is, women are human beings and human beings are attracted to aesthetically pleasing individuals — aesthetically pleasing younger models, I guess.

“So, it seems only fair that, if Al Pacino can have a 20-year-old wife in every movie he’s ever done in his career, that sometimes women can write about themselves with younger men,” Bell concludes.

Bob Straus has been covering film at the L.A. Daily News since 1989. He wouldn't say the movies have gotten worse in that time, but they do keep getting harder to love. Fortunately, he still loves them.

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